Thermal; Acoustics - Dell PowerEdge R910 Technical Manual

Dell
Airborne contaminant level
Class G1 or lower as defined by ISA-S71.04-1985 (G1 maximum corrosive contaminant levels
measured at ≤ 50% relative humidity)
For additional information about environmental measurements for specific system configurations, see
Product Safety, EMC, and Environmental Datasheets

5.3 Thermal

The PowerEdge R910 delivers uncompromising computing performance with a robust thermal and
acoustical design that quietly and efficiently maintains the server's temperatures. Thermal
management of the R910 takes inventory of the system configuration and monitors component
temperatures throughout the system to intelligently control system fans and throttle components
when needed to maintain desired power consumption and reliability levels. The R910 is designed to
maintain full performance across the entire ambient temperature operating range (10°C to 35°C).
Because of its optimized thermal management, the R910 is significantly quieter and has higher
performance than its predecessor R900 (including higher-powered processors and twice the memory
slots and hard drive count).
Thermal features for the R910 include the following:

Optimized airflow impedance for optimum cooling efficiency

Custom air baffling directs airflow through the components to maintain proper cooling

Custom designed heat sinks maintain processor, IOH, and chipset temperatures within thermal
design targets

Highly Optimized Fan Control Algorithm:
o Base fan speeds are a function of hardware configuration and ambient temperature to
minimize airflow for a given environment.
o PID control algorithms are used for both processor and DIMMs to maintain appropriate
thermal margin
o Double refresh switching allows for DIMM temperature excursions up to 95°C while
maintaining performance and thermal design targets
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5.4 Acoustics

The acoustical design of the PowerEdge R910 reflects the following:

Adherence to Dell's high sound quality standards: Sound quality is different from sound
power level and sound pressure level in that it describes how humans respond to annoyances
in sound, like whistles, hums, etc. One of the sound quality metrics in the Dell specification is
prominence ratio of a tone, and this is listed in Table 7.

Noise ramp and descent at bootup: Fan speeds, hence noise levels, ramp during the boot
process in order to add a layer of protection for component cooling in the case that the
system were not to boot properly.

Noise levels vs. configurations: Hardware configurations do result in different noise levels.
For example, processor-power dependence is shown in the following table.
Dell PowerEdge R910 Technical Guide
The R910 thermal algorithm monitors the thermal sensor on each DIMM to
maintain DIMM temperatures below the typical 85°C specification in normal
operating conditions.
Under extreme operating conditions, the thermal algorithm can switch the
DIMMs into Double Refresh mode, allowing an additional 10°C of thermal
headroom. In Double Refresh mode, the DIMMs are allowed to operate as high
as 95°C.
on Dell.com.
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